Aerospace

Preserving the space domain

The global space environment is critical to our country’s economic vitality and national security. MITRE is leading the charge to preserve and protect this unique resource using our technical know-how and partnerships with government, industry, and academia.

The rise of new space-faring nations and commercial organizations has created a congested and competitive environment at low Earth orbit, causing an ever-increasing risk of collision. Meanwhile, international norms of behavior, policy, and regulation in space don’t yet exist. And cyber threats to space systems are growing ever-more sophisticated.

At the same time, the world’s dependence on space—from navigation to communications—continues to expand. MITRE—a pioneer in the creation of GPS—knows these technologies well, in both the civilian and military spheres. That’s why we’re helping our nation retain its defensive and economic advantages through the development of increasingly accurate and resilient satellite-based position, navigation, and timing systems.

Innovative technical solutions, global space traffic management approaches, strategic thinking, and extensive collaboration are all needed to meet these challenges.

WORKING ACROSS GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST

We’re partnering with government and industry to develop standardized systems, policies, and procedures to help integrate commercial space flight into the National Airspace System in a way that balances the needs of all users—public and private, commercial and military, domestic and international. It’s a massive systems engineering challenge—the kind MITRE readily takes on.

We’re cultivating industry and government’s ability to exchange, integrate, and apply the information needed for collaborative decision-making in the intersecting air and space arenas. Our researchers are also helping the Department of Commerce design and develop an architecture and data repository to assist with the traffic management of objects in space.

To maintain secure control of space systems, we’re working with industry to evolve information-sharing approaches that strengthen cyber threat identification. And we’re collaborating across government on best practices to enhance and strengthen space systems’ resiliency to cyber attacks.

At the same time, the standup of U.S. Space Command as a full combatant command and creation of the Space Force have sharpened focus on space as a warfighting domain. MITRE brings a unique combination of technical expertise to the table, from command and control and telecommunications to systems acquisition, early-warning technology, and enterprise architectures.

Our long-term experience collaborating across the Department of Defense positions us to support these new organizations as they shape their structure, policy, doctrine, acquisitions, and operations.

ENGAGING GLOBAL PARTNERS TO ESTABLISH INTERNATIONAL NORMS

On the world stage, through partnerships and consortia, we’re facilitating the international adoption of norms, cooperation in data sharing, standards development, and coordinated debris management.
We’re also looking beyond immediate technical solutions to understand the policy, geopolitical, and economic drivers underlying space capability gaps. And we’re working with our international partners toward agreed-upon, beneficial, and equitable structuring and allocation of orbits.

As the future unfolds, space is an increasingly vital arena in the great power competition. MITRE is enabling innovation and anticipating evolving needs, while preserving this collective resource for the economic and security benefit of all.

To learn more about how MITRE can partner with you in the aerospace domain, contact us.